Issue 19, 2013 - Balliol College - University of Oxford

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features Global Balliol: Sydney By Anne Askwith In the second of a series of articles about Balliol alumni working around the world, Hilary Carey (1980) and Michael Fullilove (1997) – both Australians who came to Balliol as graduates – describe their experiences of living and working in Sydney. Hilary Carey, Ourimbah Director Research Development, Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales Describe your career since you left Balliol I left Balliol in 1983, not long after the birth of my daughter Eleanor, who was born while I was working on my DPhil in medieval history. I think I was one of the first of the Balliol women to obtain doctorates, at about the same time as my friends Jane Stapleton, Beverly Lemire, and Jenny Hughes (now Swanson). I worked as a freelance historian, and then tutor and lecturer at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney (as well as giving birth to Ben and finally Beatrice in 1988). In 1991, I got my first tenured lectureship at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, on the Hunter River, 150 kilometres north of Sydney. I currently live in Sydney and commute to the University’s Central Coast campus, which is about halfway between Sydney and Newcastle. In my early years I taught medieval and Australian history to undergraduates, but more recently I have been concentrating on my research field of religious history. I have been head of the Department of History and Assistant Dean in various roles. Like most academics, I have also done a lot of travelling and held visiting appointments at places such as the University of St Andrews, Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, and the York Centre for Medieval Studies. From 2004 to 2005 I spent two years as Keith Cameron Professor of Australian History at University College Dublin and my Irish experience had a big influence on my research. Having got the imperial history bug, I published a history of the colonial missionary movement (God’s Empire, CUP, 2011) and I am now writing a history of religion and the campaign against convict transportation in the British Empire. I am currently President of the Religious History Association and was recently elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities. What does your current position involve Being Ourimbah Director Research Development means I am research mentor for the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle’s Central Coast campus. The Central Coast is a region of rapid growth, great natural beauty, and high socioeconomic need in Sydney’s commuter belt. Besides conducting my own on-going research projects with my research group in Newcastle, I encourage staff to seek out research funding and publications, sit on the Faculty’s research committee, and try to make sure this regional campus is fully engaged with the region and integrated with the other campuses of the University. What do you enjoy about your job and what do you find challenging My job has two components: research and teaching, which keeps me alive and wanting to get to work (or an archive somewhere) every day, and the research administrator role. I try to work out a balance between the two. Research in Australia has become more and more competitive and challenging, especially for new researchers trying to break into an established field. It is easy to lose heart and feel that no one wants to listen to what you have to say and – worse – to let the fight for funding overcome the intellectual curiosity and pleasure of discovery which drew you into university teaching and research in the first place. It is a challenge working in a big university in which the major research focus is in medicine and engineering and trying to promote the value of the arts and humanities. I work in a region where many people have never been to university and another challenge is working to ensure equity and access for all students of merit, whatever their background. How have you come to be based in Sydney I was very homesick for Australia by the time I left Balliol, mostly because I missed my family. On a student grant, coming to Oxford had meant living in another country for three years (with no email or Skype) and I wanted to swim in the surf, catch a ferry, and, of course, try to get a job teaching history at an Australian university. I think I was one of the last generation of students for whom Oxford or Cambridge were the natural targets for high-achieving Australian students in the humanities; now they are more likely to head to the US or stay in Australia. I think, like the emigrating clergy I have written about, I feel part of a global intellectual diaspora which piggy-backed on the well-oiled if invisible networks of the former British Empire. These days, Australia feels more connected to Asia, and whereas I headed to Europe as soon as I could save the fare, my children all had backpacking adventures in South East Asia. 26 floreat domus balliol college news
istockphoto.com/compass and camera Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy What do you love about where you live in Australia sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. i watch the new Year’s Day fireworks erupting over sydney Harbour and wonder why anyone would want to leave. i am writing this in the state Library of new south Wales (taking time out from reading about convicts) and soon i will walk across the road to the Botanical Gardens with its spectacular views across to the opera House and Harbour Bridge. it is hard to live without access to the water if you have grown up with it. i also love newcastle with its Victorian cityscape, busy working harbour and liveable, ‘can do’ lifestyle and attitude. Across the whole continent, there is something for everyone. Is there anything you miss about the UK Having worked every day in the old Bodleian Library, when i went home i was heartbroken not to have access to medieval manuscripts and materials. now cheap airfares have made it much easier to get back to work on original sources. i was deeply attached to the British Museum and its medieval galleries and manuscripts. each time i return i pay a visit and find new things i never knew were there. Wonderful! Would you recommend life in Australia Yes, i would recommend life here. it is a hard question to answer without dropping into tourist promotional cliché but the space, climate, lifestyle, and excellent working conditions for professional people are hard to beat. the large Asian population in most Australian cities is important to the changing identity of sydney, which i think has become a global city of the south. the global economic crisis has not been a crisis for Australians, largely because of the mining boom. Australia is home to me. Describe your career since you left Balliol Before i went to Balliol, i was a lawyer and an adviser to the then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating. After Balliol, i married Gillian Fullilove (née Charlton), a Corpuscle whom i met while i was at Balliol. We have three young sons, Patrick, thomas, and Alexander. i helped to establish the Lowy institute for international Policy, Australia’s leading think tank; i served as the director of the Lowy institute’s Global issues programme; as a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings institution in Washington, DC, i followed the rise of Barack obama; and i wrote a book on Franklin D Roosevelt called Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World, to be published by Penguin in 2013 (see page 43). i was appointed executive Director of the Lowy institute in August 2012. What does your current position involve Being eD of the Lowy institute involves leading Australia’s pre-eminent think tank to publish research and generate fresh ideas on Australia’s role in the world. What do you enjoy about your job and what do you find challenging i love working with my exceptional colleagues at the institute. the corridor conversation at our Bligh street headquarters is fascinating: leadership transitions in the us and China, conflict in syria and Gaza, the rise of diasporas, the challenges of Melanesia, democracy in indonesia – it’s like living in the pages of The New York Times. How have you come to be based in Sydney i was born in sydney and it’s my favourite city in the world. i love the harbour, the ocean pools, the remarkable friendliness and diversity of the people, the optimism of the place, the sense that the geopolitical and economic action is all headed our way, the old sydney characters i’ve known all my life. Is there anything you miss about the UK naturally there are things i miss about oxford, especially oxford summers – the soft light, the golden sandstone, the trout, the Rad Cam when you come upon it late at night, the Codrington Library, the garden at Holywell Manor, all my great oxford friends. But i brought the best of oxford – my wife Gillian – home to sydney with me. issue no.19 MAY 2013 27
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE NO.19 MAY 2013 Floreat Domus
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Issue 19, 2013 - Balliol College - University of Oxford

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